


A Cup of Coffee

by orphan_account



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, F/M, a bit cliché but it'll work
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-02
Updated: 2014-03-03
Packaged: 2018-01-10 21:07:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1164538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nepeta has only worked at the local coffee shop for a week when Karkat walks in and orders "whatever has the most caffeine". He becomes a regular customer and the two get to know each other, but not once have they met each other anywhere besides the coffee shop.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Nepeta fiddled with her hair behind the counter of the empty coffee shop. She had come in the first day of her job wearing her kitty hat, but apparently it “misrepresented their company” and “no one would take her seriously”. They hadn’t let her wear a cat ear headband, either, and after a week of working there, she still hadn’t gotten used to her ears being so exposed.

The little bell on top of the door rang and she perked up at the sound as the door swung open, banging against the wall and sweeping shut again. A boy walked through, about high school age. Possibly her age? He had incredible bags under his eyes, deeper than the Grand Canyon and roughly the size. She knew the type.

“Midterms?” she said, smiling sympathetically.

He just grumbled and rested his arms on the counter like the kids that came in would, the ones that could barely see over the edge and held themselves up.

“Well, welcome to Prospit Café, the best coffee you could ever purrcieve!” she said, not allowing herself to be discouraged by his apathy. “What would you like today?”

He grumbled something else, slightly louder but still completely inaudible.

“Um, purrdon me?”

“Whatever has the most caffeine; I’m fucking exhausted.”

She frowned slightly and quickly made his coffee, searching her mind for some sort of conversation topic.

“Why are you so tired?” she asked, immediately biting her tongue afterwards. Rule number one at Prospit Café was to never ask personal questions. “Um, sorry, nefur mind.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty much none of your goddamn business.”

She handed him his coffee and pushed a few buttons on the cash register. “That’s three ninety-six.” He shoved his hand into his pocket and pulled out four wrinkly dollar bills. She grabbed them tentatively and handed back four pennies, smiling weakly. “Have a nice day! Good luck on your tests!” It was a last attempt to be nice.

“Fuck you,” he said, grabbing his coffee and ambling out. She frowned and smoothed out the bills. Three strikes, customer out. There was pretty much no way he was going to come back after that.

People were funny like that, always wanting to blame someone else for their bad experience. And Nepeta, with her immaculate red apron and smooth black blouse, was practically asking for the blame. Well, he could do whatever he wanted. It wasn’t like she was ever going to see him again. Which was too bad.

He was kind of cute.

 

*        *        *

 

For some mysterious reason, he came in again the next day, both his clothing and his attitude identical to the day before. Nepeta gave him a bright and toothy smile.

“Hello again! Welcome to Prospit Café, where fantastic coffee is our pawlicy! Same thing today?”

“Sure,” he said, shrugging. She made the coffee without rushing this time, imperceptibly slower but enough so to buy her some time. “How are you doing today?”

“You want to know how I’m doing today?” he asked, clearly a rhetorical question. “I was up until one o’clock last night studying for these goddamn tests. One o fucking clock! And get this. Apparently they were moved to tomorrow for some goddamn stupid and completely illogical reason, so not only did I cram for exactly zero fucking reasons, I have to take _three_ of those disgraces to modern education tomorrow! Why do we even take these things? Wow, now that I’ve thoroughly coated this tree corpse in fucking graphite of all things, I suddenly feel completely academically enlightened and understand everything ever. Except I hate myself even more for saying that, no matter what percentage of my awe-inspiring capacity for sarcasm was shoved into it. Which would be all of it. Goddamn it, Karkat, you’re ranting again, to the fucking coffee girl of all people. Way to go.” He buried half his face in his left hand and dragged it down to cross his arms.

Nepeta suppressed a giggle and smiled sweetly. “It’s okay! A lot of people are really furstrated this time of year. Here’s your coffee,” she said, handing him the Styrofoam cup. So Karkat was his name. She had never heard a name like that before, but it suited him well enough. Not to mention that it had the word “cat” in it, which was always a plus.

He slapped four dollars into her hand and she gave him back the four pennies. He mumbled something that was either “thank you” or “fuck you”, so Nepeta responded with a grin that could go with either. He walked out tensely, holding the coffee in both hands. Nepeta watched him through the translucent window as he walked towards a dirty, black car. She liked the way he held himself, with a heavy slouch and still a ton of pride. And his eyes were something else entirely, an incredible gray color with traces of blue, like fog on a spring morn-

"FUCKING FUCKALL GODDAMN FUCKING CAR I SWEAR TO FUCKING GOD I WILL FUCKING…”

Nepeta leapt out of her trance as if her alarm clock had gone off two hours early. The hairs on the back of her neck stood straight up as she quickly regained her balance, hopping over the counter and through the door.

“Karkat, what are you doing?” He was kicking the tire of the car repeatedly, still spewing an eternal river of swears. He paused only to turn to her, practically foaming at the mouth.

“My goddamn car won’t start!”

“It’s purrobably just the battery! Do you have any jumper cables?”

“What the fuck is a jumper cable!” he yelled, throwing his hands down like a kid having a tantrum.

Nepeta held out her hands in universal sign language for “calm the fuck down”. “Karkat, it’s no big deal. It happens to efurryone once in a while! I have some in my car, just wait here!”

She scurried to her car, conveniently next to Karkat’s, and pulled her keys from her apron’s pocket, jamming the unlock button and throwing open the trunk. She snatched the cables and opened the hoods of both cars. Karkat had mostly calmed down now and was mostly just sitting there and watching, dumbstruck.

“Have you nefur jump started your car befur?”

“No,” he said, trying not to look stupid.

“You should keep some jumper cables in your car. They aren’t that big and are purretty handy!” She attached the red cable, starting to calm down.

“How do you know this stuff?” he said, crossing his arms.

“My furiend Equius is really good with cars, so he taught me some easy stuff.” She blushed slightly. “Well, not that this is easy. I mean, it’s purretty easy, but it’s okay that you don’t know how.”

“No, I’m completely incompetent when it comes to cars. I would have just kicked it for a few more hours until it gave up and started.”

She giggled. “Here, let me show you. You just attach the red cable here and here…” She guided him through the process step-by-step. “And now we just wait fur a minute while it charges.”

He nodded and mumbled a thank you. Nepeta decided that it was definitely a thank you this time.

“No purroblem.” She looked down at the spilt coffee on the sidewalk, remembering that she was technically still on duty. “I can get you another one if you want.”

“No, I’m fine.”

“Okay.”

There was a moment of silence. “Since when do you know my name?”

“You said it earlier,” she said, smiling slightly.

“No, I’m pretty sure I didn’t.”

“You did!”

“Actually, I’m one-hundred percent sure that I didn’t.”

“No, you did! You said it afurter you had finished ranting about your tests! Maybe you were talking to yourself? I don’t know!”

He paused. “Afurter?”

“After!” she said insistently.

He laughed a little as Nepeta realized he was teasing, smiling for the first time. Equius had told her once that the jaw was the strongest muscle in the body. And based on how much strength it must have taken to keep hers from dropping at that smile, she didn’t doubt it for a second. When he was mad, his expressions were like a meteor, burning and plummeting down to the surface of the earth, breathtaking. But when he smiled, it was just as intense, not so much like a meteor as a whole shower of them, as fleeting and brilliant as a shooting star. It was astounding.

His smile faded into a subtle grin and she mentally snapped her fingers in front of her eyes. “It should be ready now,” she said, pointing to the car.

“Oh, sure,” he said, pulling the door open and hopping into the driver’s seat. He turned the key and the engine purred to life. He backed against seat and smiled, holding out his hands as if he were afraid to touch it in fear that it might stop working. “Wow, thanks,” he said, not taking his eyes off the wheel.

“I just jump started it. It wasn’t a purroblem.”

He smiled again and her heart started spinning like a top. “Well, see you around,” he said, nodding hawkishly.

“See you,” she said, holding up a hand. He drove away and she smiled dreamily. She ambled back into the coffee shop and spent the rest of her shift drifting in and out of awareness as she pictured that smile.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoops, that's a short chapter. Oh well.

Karkat came in the next day, too, and the day that followed, always at the same time in the morning. Nepeta worked their morning shift, every morning of the week. There weren't many other employees there. It was a small business on a small road in a relatively small town of small people, so Prospit Café had a small workforce. But Nepeta didn't mind. She kept a sketchbook under the counter for those breaks when no one was there. But she started pulling it out less and less as Karkat's visits became longer and longer.

He would come in early, at around 6:00, his eyes drooping and a sagging, grumpy frown. Nepeta always made his coffee a little early so that it was ready when he came in, giving it just enough time to cool down. He would pay for it, and she would give him change. But he didn't leave. He'd sit by the counter and talk to her, always acting like he might walk out at any second. Sometimes he would pause halfway through the door, still talking like he was standing right by the counter. But Nepeta would always make him go, insisting that he would be late for school. But they always had interesting conversations, the highlight of her morning.

"This is pretty empty for a coffee shop in the morning," he said one snowy morning, gesturing around with his styrofoam cup.

"It's always like this, Karkitty," Nepeta said, "Most people would-"

"Wait, wait, wait. Just a second. What did you just call me?" He pointed at her with his empty hand and got a stern look on his face, like a parent chastising a child.

Nepeta giggled at his particularly ridiculous expression. "Karkitty. Your name has 'cat' in it, doesn't it?" She had come up with the nickname the night before and had been almost too excited to go to sleep that night thinking about telling him.

"Well, yeah, but my name's Karkat, not 'Karkitty'," he said, waving his hands lethargically as he said the nickname. It sounded even more adorable when he said it.

"I can stop calling you Karkitty if you want," she said, smiling, "But it's a purrfect nickname for you! A wonderful blend of my friend and the best animal efur!"

He gave her a slanted smile, one of the ones so rare she felt like she should be marking a bingo card. "So, what is it with you and cats? You're always throwing 'fur' and 'paw' and 'purr' into words in the most ludicrously casual way I could 'pawsibly' imagine. And now Karkitty? It's getting out of hand, Nepeta."

"Cats are the best! It nefur 'gets out of hand', Karkitty! You can always affurd to have more cats in your life. They're like little fluffy people with tails and two more legs and the most adorable little noses! I have seven!"

Karkat's eyes went from the relaxed state of listening to Nepeta ramble to shooting open, exposing the whites of his eyes all around his irises. _"_ _Seven?"_ he said, utterly flabbergasted.

"Yeah! I want more, but my pawrents say that seven is already too many. Someday I want to have twelve, maybe even thirteen!"

Karkat stared at her, practically in shock. "Let me get this straight. You want to have a  _dozen_ cats someday? As in, a lot of cats?"

"Absolutely!" Nepeta chirped, "Like I said, you can nefur have too many cats! All of mine are from the shelter. Shelpurr?" she said, looking at the ceiling for a moment. "Nah, shelter. That one's a bit obscure, heh."

Karkat shrugged. "Still, though, that's way too many cats. How do you have time to do anything but take care of them?"

"Oh, they're really easy! Fur the most pawt, they feed and take care of themselves. Sometimes they even take me hunting with them!" Karkat raised an eyebrow. Nepeta raised one of hers, the wiggled them and twitched her nose. Karkat just rolled his eyes, attempting to smother his smile in contempt. Nepeta saw through it, of course, but she let him pretend that he didn't care.

"And you just keep all these cats at your house?"

"Yup!"

Karkat paused, then looked down and mumbled to himself, "I have the weirdest bulge right now."

"What was that, Karkitty?"

"Nothing," he said. "I have to go," he said, looking at the clock.

"Alright, Karkitty!" She gave him a salute, and he returned it, giving her that same hidden smile as he had before. He took a final sip of his coffee and tossed it into the trash can by the door nonchalantly. Nepeta watched as he walked through the door and drove away, standing completely still and counting to five after the car was out of sight. She started beaming and pulled her sketchbook out from under the counter, pawing it open to the inside cover.

"Should I count the ones that he tried to hide?" she mused to herself, resting her chin on the palm of her hand. "I think so. They still were smiles, afurter all." She wrote the date and made three tally marks, trying to burn each one of his grins into her memory. Three - that was one more than yesterday. She was making progress, slowly but surely. Before she knew it, he would never be frowning again. She opened the sketchbook to a random page and flipped through until she came across a blank one. She pulled a pencil out of her apron pocket and, not allowing her mind to drift from that smile of his, started to draw him.

She finished it during math class that day. She could almost hear the door's bell ringing as she imagined him walking into the shop.


	3. Chapter 3

Nepeta was already beaming when Karkat walked in, and he gave her a soft smile in return, a smile that was worth a thousand of her own. It had been over a month since his first visit, and he hadn’t missed a day yet, regardless of snow or sleet or icy roads. She handed him his coffee and he gave her the four dollars. He pulled out an extra dollar and reached to put it in the tip jar.

He paused. “Hey, where’s the jar?”

Nepeta hopped onto the counter and frowned. “I don’t know. There’s a bunch of stuff missing. I don’t think we were robbed beclaws they’re all little things. Maybe Mr. Scratch is getting a mew shipment today.”

“Who’s Mr. Scratch?” he asked, joining her on the counter.

“CatScratch is the owner,” she explained, “He’s here in the morning purretty much efurry day, but he hasn’t been fur a while. I’ll ask him what’s up when he comes in.”

Karkat nodded. “This is really weird. Didn’t there used to be two more tables over there?”

“I think so. I’m pawsitive CatScratch will explain efurrything.”

They paused for a moment, the clock ticking loudly. Except – no, wait, the clock was gone too. It was silent.

“How was your day yesterday?” Karkat asked, taking a sip of his coffee.

“It was great! I got to see my friend Equius, which was pawesome beclaws I haven’t in a while. And at school I –“

“Wait, who’s Equius?” Karkat narrowed his eyes. “Is he your boyfriend?”

Nepeta shook her head quickly and held up her hands. “No, no, we’re just furiends. Well, more than furiends, really. We’re best furiends! Equius even made up some word fur it. Meowrails? I can’t remember.”

“Meowrails?” Karkat said, slowly exhaling, “That’s ridiculous.”

“Kind of, yeah. But he’s purretty ridiculous himself, even though he tries to purrtend he’s not!”

Karkat nodded. “So… are you dating anyone?”

“No!” Nepeta said, “I mean, not right now, no. There’s not… I mean… Yeah.”

“That’s cool,” Karkat said, not wanting to push the subject any further.

“Are… you dating anyone?”

“No,” he said, shrugging, “This might sound stupid, but I’ve never actually dated anyone before.”

Nepeta smiled. “Me neither.”

They sat in silence again. Nepeta felt like she was going to explode. She felt a shivering within her core that made her feel warm all over, right down to her toes in her sneakers. She wasn’t sure if she was anxious or excited or flat-out terrified, but it was a good feeling, whatever it was.

She was tempted to ask him on a date right then, but Equius had once told her not to make any decisions when she was scared or excited or anything extreme like that. Seeing as she couldn’t identify it herself, she decided to wait until tomorrow.

She looked at her watch. “Oh, you need to go! You’re late!” She hopped off the counter and he jumped down too. She practically forced him out the door, grinning and saying “See you tomorrow!” He fumbled through a goodbye and jogged to his car, driving away haphazardly. She sighed and began to brainstorm ideas for a date.

The rest of her shift was completely devoid of customers. The next person to come in was Mr. Scratch himself, with a worn-out expression on his face.

“Hello, Ms. Leijon,” he said, “I suppose you’ve heard about the storm we’re supposed to get tomorrow?”

“I did,” she said, “Appurrently they’re going to close a lot of the roads.” She narrowed her eyes, realizing that she had almost been roped into a conversation about weather of all things when there were clearly more pressing matters. “Where is efurrything?”

Scratch looked her in the eyes, unblinking. “We’re closing up shop. Surely you’ve noticed that business has only gone down since we opened. I’ve been meaning to tell you. Most of the storage has already been packed up. This is the last of it. We should be done by the end of the day. I had hoped we could get some more customers on the last day. How many people came in?”

Nepeta frowned, crestfallen. “One. Four dollars.”

He nodded. “I had figured. I’ve already got a lease deal with Starbucks going. They’re going to turn this place around, and you can apply for a job with them if you’d like. But you can go home now. No point in coming back tomorrow.”

Nepeta sauntered out to her car. Her usual bright vision of the world had fallen to a monochrome. She would have to come by the next day and meet Karkat outside the shop. There was no reason that shouldn’t work. I can ask him on a date then, she told herself, nodding firmly as she drove towards school. Twenty-four hours. Twenty-four hours, and she might have a boyfriend.

She could wait. It would be worth it.

 

*        *        *

 

She got home from school that day late. There was crazy traffic, people driving to home, from home, anything to get somewhere else before the storm started. Nepeta couldn’t help but laugh at how in everyone’s attempt to get somewhere, it just created traffic, and no one could go anywhere.

“Hi Nepeta!” Meulin said as Nepeta walked through the front door, stomping snow off her feet.

“Hello Meulin! Why are you home so early?”

“Ms. Snowman gave me purrmission to leave the pharmacy early. She was about to close up shop anyway.”

Nepeta frowned. “Oh, yeah, bad mews. Prospit Café went out of business.”

“Aw, that’s too bad,” Meulin said, not sounding too disappointed, “Do you want some tea? I just put some water on the stove.”

“That would be purrfect!”

Nepeta sat in her room snuggled under a blanket and sipped her tea, updating her Twitter.

“:33< drinking some chameowmile tea – thank you meulin!” She hit the enter button and closed out of Twitter.

“You’re welcome!” Meulin yelled from downstairs. Meulin, on the other hand, never closed out of Twitter. It was unthinkable.

She pulled up Facebook instead, typing in Karkat. No results. She had tried this before, of course, but it was always worth a shot. She didn’t know why she felt the need to find him. She would just see him tomorrow, of course. Just like any other day. Maybe she could bring him some coffee from home instead. The snow would surely be done in time. _How much snow can the sky even hold?_ she wondered to herself. _Certainly not enough to last all night and tomorrow._

She nodded affirmatively and pulled out her sketchbook. Flipping to another page, she started to draw him again, this time in color. It would be perfect.


	4. Chapter 4

Nepeta didn’t get any sleep that night. The wind had been petulantly howling all night, pawing at the window like a cat at a glass door. She had made sure all her cats were inside, even though she wasn’t certain why any of them would be outside in this weather. Most of them were under her bed, as a matter of fact, and coaxing them out in the morning would be hell.

And it certainly was. The wind hadn’t let up at all, and even if Nepeta dragged them out, as soon as she let them go they’d dart back underneath, like meerkats hiding from the lion of a wind. She put their food bowls under the bed and went downstairs.

She plopped a tea bag into her coffee cup and held some toast between her teeth. When she hopped into the garage, though, the wind only got louder, so loud that it gave her a headache. She opened her car door and was about to hit the button for the garage.

“Nepeta, where are you going!” someone said. Nepeta whipped around, Meulin’s voice so loud it was crystal clear. She had set up a lawn chair in the open space of the garage and was wearing so many sweaters that she looked like a marshmallow. So many sweaters, in fact, that Nepeta didn’t even notice the bundle of yarn in her lap.

“Why are you crocheting in the garage?” Nepeta yelled, baffled.

“It’s soothing! I like the sound of the wind.”

“That’s ridiculous!”

“What’s ridiculous is you trying to drive somewhere in this weather! The roads are all clawsed. And pawlus, you’ll get in an accident!”

“But I need to get to the coffee shop!”

“Nepeta, whatever it is, it can wait until the snow is done.”

“No, you don’t understand. I –“

“It’s a boy, isn’t it?”

“No!”

“Come on, Nepeta, it’s purrfectly fine. I’m not going to tell mom or anything.”

Nepeta sighed. Meulin’s eyebrows rose until they were concealed beneath her bangs and her smile morphed into a perfect Cheshire Cat imitation.

“His name’s Karkat. He comes in efurry day, except now the coffee shop’s closed, so I need to meet him there.”

“Nepeta, he won’t even be able to get there in this weather. Even if you can make it through the storm without crashing, he won’t be there.”

“No, he’s stubborn like that, I have to try!”

“Nepeta, either go back inside or come sit next to me. I mean it.”

Meulin was wearing her “I mean business” face, an expression Nepeta had only seen a few times. The last time was when she had found out that her boyfriend, Kurloz, had been cheating on her. And with a boy, too. But it had never been directed at Nepeta. Her eyes were narrowed in a challenge and her lips drawn back, almost into a snarl, or as if she was about to start hissing at you. Even her hair seemed to bristle, like each strand was a snake that was getting real tired of Nepeta’s bullshit.

She walked over to Meulin and grabbed a lawn chair.

“So, will you tell me about him?” Meulin said, resuming her crocheting.

“Oh, he’s wonderful, Meulin. He has the most purrfect eyes, gray and soft but always so defensive, and he gets so angry at efurrything, but he means well, I know he does. And his smile is the most beautiful thing I have efur seen…”

Meulin crochets in silence as she talks about him, smiling and nodding almost imperceptibly. She can remember what that felt like. But she’s too busy listening to her sister to wonder if the feeling will ever come her way again. She has priorities.

 

*       *        *

 

By the next day the storm had cleared, leaving as quickly as it had come. Trees had toppled power lines and dozens of houses had been badly damaged. Nepeta jumped out of bed first thing in the morning and ran out to the car. She drove to the coffee shop only a few ticks above the speed limit, her foot twitching on the pedal. She deftly (if not hectically) maneuvered throughout the city, avoiding closed roads and driving with more focus than she ever had before.

The car pulled into the road of the coffee shop and Nepeta sprang out, scurrying towards the door of the shop. She tried the doorknob and knocked on the door, even looking for the key that everyone kept under the mat. There was nothing.

Instead, she just leaned against the wall and waited.

No one came.

Her vision faded to an inky black.

 

*       *        *

 

“Here’s your order,” Nepeta said, handing the customer his drink. He firmly grabbed the cup and handed her four dollars.

“What is it?” he said, taking a sip.

“Like you said,” Nepeta shrugged, “Whatefur had the most caffeine.”

He smiled. “Not bad.” He held up his hand in a nonchalant wave and walked through the door.

Nepeta pulled out her sketchbook and doodled for a bit, smiling. She had started daydreaming again while making a customer’s coffee – it wasn’t exactly uncommon. At least this guy hadn’t asked for a specific order. Once she accidentally gave someone decaf. That had been a disaster!

Maybe she’d write a fanfiction about this one. She kind of liked the story concept, even if it was a bit cliché. She’d have to change the characters, of course, and the name of the coffee shop. Scratch loved when she put him into her stories, though, even if it was a bit creepy.

She drew him on the last page of her notebook. She wanted to remember exactly what he looked like. Realistically speaking, he probably wasn’t going to come back. She would remember though.

She had a wonderful memory.


End file.
